How Long Does Does It Take To Walk Independently After A Stroke?

Posted on Fri, 13 Jun 2014

Question: my father, age 69, had a stroke in august 2013 and since then he is paralysed on his left side. he has a history of atrial fibrillation which is the likely reason for a clot in the pca area of his brain. he was discharged from hospital after 1 month and from mid september we have a physiotherapist coming everyday. we also have day care for him to take his exercise 3 times a day. he has shown improvement but is still not able to independently get up from the bed, cannot sit for long hours and still not able to walk independently. my question is can we still hope that he will be able to walk independently given that now its been around 10 months since his stoke. also I am thinking of changing the physio. the current physio is a BpTH while the replacement physio I have found is a MpTH with nuero as his elective. I want to know will it be fine if I change the physio midway and get a new physio. would my father not go back on the improvement got so far because of break in routine that he is used to.

Answered by Dr. Sudhir Kumar (46 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
We can expect more improvement.

Detailed Answer:
Hi Mr XXXXXXX

Thank you for posting your query.

I have noted your father's symptoms.

We can expect more recovery in him in future too, as recovery after stroke continues for up to two years after stroke also.

Also, doing physiotherapy under the guidance of MPT would be better than BPT, as MRP are trained in neuro more than BPT.

I hope he is on the oral anticoagulants such as warfarin or dabigatran tablets to prevent stroke in the future too.

I hope my reply has helped you.

I would be pleased to answer, if you have any follow up queries or if you require any further information.

Best wishes,
Dr Sudhir Kumar MD (Internal Medicine), DM (Neurology) XXXXXXX Consultant Neurologist
Apollo Hospitals, XXXXXXX
For DIRECT QUERY to me: http://bit.ly/Dr-Sudhir-kumar
My blog: http://bestneurodoctor.blogspot.com/

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Sudhir Kumar (19 hours later)

Dr. XXXXXXX thank you very much for your response. It was really helpful and encouraging.? Attached are the prescription of medicines that he is currently taking. I hope it includes the anticoagulants that you are referring to.
Thank you again for your guidance. I will soon change the physio and get the mpt physio and hope for his faster recovery.

Answered by Dr. Sudhir Kumar (3 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Yes, he is on those medicines.

Detailed Answer:
Thank you for getting back and sending the prescriptions.

He is already on those medicines- ECOSPRIN (aspirin) is the anti-platelet and pradaxa (dabigatran) is the anticoagulant.

Best wishes,
Dr Sudhir Kumar MD DM (Neurology)

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar